4 ms·

Looking for wannabe FreeBSD/EC2 users

30 points by hasanove 17y ago

fierarul 17y ago
I presume the only thing I would like to check out on FreeBSD is dtrace. The 2nd thing would be perhaps something related to ZFS.
- jcsalterego 17y ago
  Interesting you should mention those technologies, as they both originated from Sun and have been ported elsewhere. While FreeBSD's ZFS is a solid port and probably the best non-Sun implementation, it's actually a few versions behind. It might be worth checking out OpenSolaris, despite its future seeming to be up in the air, with Oracle's acquisition of Sun.
  - jaaron 17y ago
    And you can already run OpenSolaris on EC2.
X-Istence 17y ago
I've wanted to use EC2 for some projects, however I don't like using Linux, so if FreeBSD would work on EC2 it would certainly help get me using Amazon's services. However because I am currently unemployed I do not have any money to put into development, and all my projects that require a positive cash flow have been put on the backburner.
- jaaron 17y ago
  OpenSolaris already works on EC2. Have you considered that?
  - X-Istence 17y ago
    Yes, I have, and I run an OpenSolaris machine at home as my file server. The issue I have with OpenSolaris is that if you stick to their /release PKG tree you don't get any security updates what so ever, if you however track the /dev PKG tree you get experimental updates, that may or may not break functionality you need.
- cperciva 17y ago
  Please send me an email anyway -- whether people can provide funding is one measure of community interest, but definitely not the only one.
epi0Bauqu 17y ago
You mention funding for development. What amount would cover it and what is a meaningful amount? I'm one of those people that bugged you on the AWS forums about this :). I run FreeBSD on my servers but have had to compromise on EC2 (running Ubuntu now).
- cperciva 17y ago
  I'm not sure exactly how much funding is necessary; but it's not a big number on the scale of internet startups. Please send me an email. :-)
pavs 17y ago
Can anyone tell me the benefits of freebsd over popular Linux server distros (Ubuntu/centos/rhel)?
- borism 17y ago
  not being "popular linux distro" can be a benefit perhaps? otherwise, I don't see what difference does it make what kernel you're running. matter of taste
  - kree10 17y ago
    For me, it's not really about the kernel but the whole OS, userland included. I agree it's still mostly matter of taste, or maybe more honestly, what you're used to. Some people really like apt-get/dpkg but I prefer working with "make buildworld/installworld" and the ports system on FreeBSD. Also, though it's not something I've taken advantage of much, I love how on FreeBSD I can "cd /usr/src/bin/ls" and hey: there's the source for ls! If I wanted to, I could hack it, and run "make install" right there. I prefer this over (for example) source packages with Doogie's Build System on Debian.
    - borism 17y ago
      recompiling your programs on every machine is such a waste of cloud
- dalore 17y ago
  Licensing. The BSD license is less restrictive than the GPL.
  - pavs 17y ago
    Can you give a non-hypothetical real-life scenario where Freebsd with BSD license helps over GPL license based linux-distro when running a server? I am genuinely curious.
    - 17y ago

30 points by hasanove 17y ago

I presume the only thing I would like to check out on FreeBSD is dtrace. The 2nd thing would be perhaps something related to ZFS.

jcsalterego 17y ago
Interesting you should mention those technologies, as they both originated from Sun and have been ported elsewhere. While FreeBSD's ZFS is a solid port and probably the best non-Sun implementation, it's actually a few versions behind. It might be worth checking out OpenSolaris, despite its future seeming to be up in the air, with Oracle's acquisition of Sun.
- jaaron 17y ago
  And you can already run OpenSolaris on EC2.

X-Istence 17y ago

I've wanted to use EC2 for some projects, however I don't like using Linux, so if FreeBSD would work on EC2 it would certainly help get me using Amazon's services. However because I am currently unemployed I do not have any money to put into development, and all my projects that require a positive cash flow have been put on the backburner.

jaaron 17y ago
OpenSolaris already works on EC2. Have you considered that?
- X-Istence 17y ago
  Yes, I have, and I run an OpenSolaris machine at home as my file server. The issue I have with OpenSolaris is that if you stick to their /release PKG tree you don't get any security updates what so ever, if you however track the /dev PKG tree you get experimental updates, that may or may not break functionality you need.
cperciva 17y ago
Please send me an email anyway -- whether people can provide funding is one measure of community interest, but definitely not the only one.

epi0Bauqu 17y ago

You mention funding for development. What amount would cover it and what is a meaningful amount? I'm one of those people that bugged you on the AWS forums about this :). I run FreeBSD on my servers but have had to compromise on EC2 (running Ubuntu now).

cperciva 17y ago
I'm not sure exactly how much funding is necessary; but it's not a big number on the scale of internet startups. Please send me an email. :-)

pavs 17y ago

Can anyone tell me the benefits of freebsd over popular Linux server distros (Ubuntu/centos/rhel)?

borism 17y ago
not being "popular linux distro" can be a benefit perhaps? otherwise, I don't see what difference does it make what kernel you're running. matter of taste
- kree10 17y ago
  For me, it's not really about the kernel but the whole OS, userland included. I agree it's still mostly matter of taste, or maybe more honestly, what you're used to. Some people really like apt-get/dpkg but I prefer working with "make buildworld/installworld" and the ports system on FreeBSD. Also, though it's not something I've taken advantage of much, I love how on FreeBSD I can "cd /usr/src/bin/ls" and hey: there's the source for ls! If I wanted to, I could hack it, and run "make install" right there. I prefer this over (for example) source packages with Doogie's Build System on Debian.
  - borism 17y ago
    recompiling your programs on every machine is such a waste of cloud
dalore 17y ago
Licensing. The BSD license is less restrictive than the GPL.
- pavs 17y ago
  Can you give a non-hypothetical real-life scenario where Freebsd with BSD license helps over GPL license based linux-distro when running a server? I am genuinely curious.
  - 17y ago